1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a photograph processing apparatus and, more particularly, to a photograph processing apparatus capable of processing a lengthy photosensitive material spliced at splicing portions. In the apparatus, a photosensitive-material-containing magazine contains the photosensitive material which is rolled up. The photosensitive material has a detecting slot longitudinally formed near; each of the splicing portions for detecting these portions.
2. Description of the Related Art
Such a photograph processing apparatus records, under exposure, a frame picture of a negative or a digital picture film onto a photosensitive material or develops and dries thus-exposed photosensitive material, to eject it as cut in photograph print from the apparatus. To process this photosensitive material, the photograph processing apparatus is adapted to be mounted at its predetermined portion with a photosensitive-material containing magazine.
In the photosensitive-material containing magazine, a lengthy photosensitive material is wound in roll as long as 100 and a few tens of meters in some cases. In processing a photograph, the photosensitive material is pulled out of the photosensitive-material magazine and conveyed during predetermined processing. Ideally, the photosensitive material should preferably be contained with no splicing portions in the photosensitive-material containing magazine; actually however, splicing portions may be provided for a manufacturing reason etc.
The following will describe splicing portions with reference to FIG. 3. As shown in FIG. 3, a photosensitive material is cut with a cutter (cutting means) in front of and behind a splicing portion. Such a photosensitive material is hereinafter called splicing portion-attached photosensitive material 3s. The splicing portion-attached photosensitive material 3s comprises a splicing portion at which photosensitive material pieces are spliced in a longitudinal direction, and a detecting slot 3a for detecting the splicing portion 3b. At the splicing portion 3b, front and rear photosensitive material pieces are spliced by an appropriate method such as thermal fusion.
The detecting slot 3a is formed in the photosensitive material longitudinally (in a conveying direction), measuring x in the longitudinal direction and y in the conveying-width direction. The detecting slot size and position with respect to the splicing portion 3b are specified by the JIS Standards and the ISO Standards.
The following will briefly describe a configuration of a conveying means or a plurality of conveying means for conveying a photosensitive material 3 in a photograph processing apparatus, which conveying means is positioned near an ejecting port. FIG. 5 is a side view of the conveying means T in the vicinity of the ejecting portion 10, and FIG. 6 is a plan view of the conveying means T shown in FIG. 5.
The photosensitive material is conveyed in the arrow direction in the figure. The above-mentioned conveying means T comprises a driving roller 39, a pressing roller 40, a large-diameter roller 35 provided at a curved comer on a conveying path, a pair of pressing rollers 36 and 37 pressed against the large-diameter roller 35, a driving roller set 30, and a pressing roller set 31. As shown in FIG. 6, the pressing roller set 31 comprises three pressing rollers of 31a, 31b, and 31c arranged in a conveying-width direction and supported by a supporting shaft 34. The driving roller set 30 also comprises three driving rollers corresponding to the above-mentioned pressing rollers 31a-31c. 
How the splicing portion-attached photosensitive material 3s is conveyed is explained as follows: it is conveyed over the large-diameter roller 35 and the driving roller set 30, more specifically by the pressing roller 31a at the center among the pressing roller set 31 and the driving roller, in which the pressing roller 31a has its width size h a little smaller than a width size y of the detecting slot 3a (see FIG. 18).
With this, therefore, when the splicing portion attached photosensitive material 3s is conveyed so that the detecting slot 3a may be positioned at the pressing roller 31a, this pressing roller 31a cannot transfer conveying force. To certainly convey the splicing portion-attached photosensitive material 3s even in such a case, a distance A has been large between the end of the detecting slot 3a and that of the photosensitive material 3s so that even if conveying force by the pressing roller 31a cannot be transferred, conveying force by the large-diameter roller 35 and the first pressing roller 36 on the upstream side can be transferred. That is, if, as shown in FIG. 5, a distance B as supposed to be a spacing between the large-diameter roller 35 and the pressing roller set 31 is set so that A less than B, the splicing portion-attached photosensitive material 3s cannot be conveyed. Therefore, at least a relationship of A greater than B must be established.
The splicing portion-attached photosensitive material 3s cannot be used in printing and is to be discarded, so that the above-mentioned dimension A should have preferably been reduced as much as possible to minimize a resultant loss. Also, a suspected increase in the width of the pressing roller 31a is limited in view of a configuration shown in FIG. 6 in which large-diameter rollers 32a-32c are arranged next to the driving rollers 30a-30c to give a robustness to the photosensitive material.
Such a suspected method that takes out the splicing portion-attached photosensitive material 3s from the apparatus by stopping photograph processing is troublesome because it involves suspending of the photograph processing.
In view of the above, it is an object of the present invention to provide a photograph processing apparatus capable of minimizing a loss in a photosensitive material used while maintaining a high processing efficiency.
To this end, a photograph processing apparatus according to the present invention features such a configuration that comprises: an exposing portion for recording, under exposure, a picture on a photosensitive material which is cut to a print size; a developing portion for developing the photosensitive material; a photosensitive-material-containing magazine for containing in roll a lengthy photosensitive material composed of pieces connected via respective splicing portions in the vicinity of which, for each, a detecting slot is longitudinally formed for detecting each splicing portion; a cutting means for cutting the photosensitive material drawn from the photosensitive-material-containing magazine to a predetermined size as a splicing portion-attached photosensitive material having the splicing portion and the detecting slot; a conveying means for conveying the thus-cut photosensitive material; a conveying roller which is provided in the conveying means and which has a width the same as or narrower than the detecting slot; and a width-directional shifting means for shifting in a conveyance-width direction the splicing portion-attached photosensitive material to a position such that the conveying roller may not encounter the detecting slot.
With this configuration, a lengthy photosensitive material is drawn from the photosensitive-material-containing magazine mounted on a photograph processing apparatus and then undergoes exposure and other processes consecutively. The lengthy photosensitive material is cut by the cutting means to a predetermined print size, specifically in such a manner that the cutting means cuts a portion including the splicing portion and the detecting slot as a splicing portion-attached photosensitive material. This splicing portion-attached photosensitive material, which is conveyed by the conveying means having a narrow conveying roller, is actually conveyed by the width-directional shifting means in a conveying-width direction to such a position that the narrow conveying roller may not encounter the detecting slot. That is, the narrow conveying roller conveys the splicing portion-attached photosensitive material while evading the detecting slot, thus fully transferring conveying force by the narrow conveying roller to the photosensitive material.
With this, the distance A can be reduced between the end of the detecting slot 3a such as shown in FIG. 3 and that of the photosensitive material 3s, thereby decreasing a resultant loss.
A preferred embodiment of the present invention comprises a distributing/conveying mechanism for switching its conveying state from a single-sequence one to a multiple one, acting as the above-mentioned width-direction shifting means.
A distributing/conveying mechanism for switching the conveying mode of a photosensitive material from a single-line mode to a multiple-line mode may sometimes be provided in a photograph processing apparatus in order to improve its capacity for processing a photosensitive material. Such a distributing/conveying mechanism can act as the width-direction shifting means, to eliminate the need of a dedicated width-direction shifting means, thus reducing the cost and inhibiting increasing the size of an apparatus.
Another preferred embodiment of the present invention further comprises a stocking portion disposed between the above-mentioned exposing portion and the above-mentioned developing portion for stocking the above-mentioned photosensitive material, preferably comprising a switching device for switching the above-mentioned photosensitive material from the single-sequence state to the multiple-sequence state in conveyance, a tip aligning device for aligning the tips of the above-mentioned photosensitive material pieces switched by this switching device, and a plurality of stocking devices for stocking multiple sequences of these photosensitive material pieces with their tips mutually aligned, in such a manner that the above-mentioned switching device, tip aligning device, plurality of stocking devices are disposed in order from the upper-stream side of the above-mentioned conveying path.
The photograph processing apparatus according to the present invention has the following functions:
(1) cutting a photosensitive material to a predetermined print size before a picture is recorded on it under exposure;
(2) recording the picture on the photosensitive material under exposure;
(3) feeding thus exposed photosensitive material to the switching device provided on the stocking portion;
(4) switching, by use of the switching device, the photosensitive material from the single-line mode to the multiple-line (two lines or more) mode;
(5) feeding thus switched photosensitive material to the tip aligning device, to mutually align the tips of the photosensitive material pieces thus switched to the multiple-line mode; and
(6) feeding these multiple lines of the photosensitive material pieces with their tips aligned with each other, to the stocking device.
Since the stocking device is provided two or more, photosensitive material pieces are stocked starting in the top one on the conveyance path. Then, they are stocked in sequentially from the top device. With the plurality of stocking devices provided, immediately after the photosensitive material can be fed to the developing portion, only the photosensitive material in the top stocking device can be fed to the developing portion, thus permitting a photosensitive material fed from the exposing portion to be sequentially stocked in the stocking devices on the up-stream side. Thus, the plurality of stocking devices provided enables accommodating a difference in processing speed between the developing portion and the exposing portion.
The stocking portion can stock therein a photosensitive material in a multiple-line mode. This configuration can drastically increase a stock quantity as compared to a single-line stocking configuration.
As a result, it has been made possible to provide a photograph processing apparatus that can reserve a sufficient quantity of photosensitive material while inhibiting larger sizing of the apparatus as a whole.
Still another preferred embodiment of the present invention has such a configuration that the stocking device disposed nearest, among the above-mentioned plurality of stocking devices, to the above-mentioned developing portion can be switched, in conveying of the above-mentioned photosensitive material, between a speed corresponding to a processing speed employed in the above-mentioned developing portion and a speed corresponding to a processing speed employed in the above-mentioned exposing portion.
With this configuration, a photosensitive material is stocked to the stocking device nearest to the developing portion by setting the processing speed (higher speed) employed in the exposing portion. Then, the photosensitive material is conveyed from this stocking device to the developing portion by setting the processing speed (lower speed) employed in the developing portion. With this, the photosensitive material can be rapidly stocked to the stocking portion.
Still another preferred embodiment of the present invention has such a configuration that the above-mentioned tip aligning mechanism forcedly feeds the above-mentioned photosensitive material to the above-mentioned stocking device immediately after a predetermined time lapse elapses.
Although the tip aligning device basically feeds multiple lines of photosensitive material pieces to the stocking device after they are aligned mutually, some troubles including disarrangement may disturb alignment of the multiple lines. In such a case, if the photosensitive material is held in the tip aligning device for long time, print color etc. may be adversely affected, and thus the photosensitive material is to be forcedly fed to the stocking device when a predetermined time passes. With this, undesirable coloring of the photosensitive material can be prevented.
Still another preferred embodiment of the present invention has such a configuration that the above-mentioned conveying path in the above-mentioned stocking portion snakes up and down.
This configuration of the conveying path snaking up and down makes it possible to reserve a sufficient stock quantity while inhibiting larger sizing of the photograph processing apparatus.
Moreover, the above-mentioned conveying means preferably comprises: a first conveying path for conveying the above-mentioned photosensitive material; a first conveying means provided along this first conveying path; a second conveying path for conveying the above-mentioned photosensitive material; a second conveying means provided along this second conveying path; one driving source for driving the above-mentioned first and second conveying means; a first driving-force transferring path for transferring driving force of the above-mentioned driving source to the above-mentioned first and second conveying means; and a second driving-force transferring path for transferring driving force of the above-mentioned driving source only to the above-mentioned second conveying means, in which when the above-mentioned driving source is switched in rotation, either the above-mentioned first or second driving-force transferring path is selected.
With this configuration, one driving source can drive both the first and second conveying means. Then, the driving source can be switched in rotation, so that for example in the case of a first rotation direction, driving force may be transferred along the first driving-force transferring path to both the first and second conveying means and, in the case of the second rotation direction, the driving force may be transferred along the second driving-force transferring path only to the second conveying means.
These first and second conveying means can be controlled as follows for aligning the tips of the photosensitive material pieces:
(1) First a photosensitive material is fed onto the first conveying path;
(2) In this case, driving force is driven in the first rotation direction, to drive both the first and second conveying means. Although the second conveying means also is thus driven, the photosensitive material is not fed onto it yet, so that it does not matter;
(3) When the photosensitive material comes up to a predetermined position, the driving source is stopped;
(4) Next, the driving source is switched to the second rotation direction;
(5) With this, only the second conveying means is driven, to convey the photosensitive material fed onto the second conveying path;
(6) When the tip of the photosensitive material piece fed onto the second conveying path is aligned with that waiting on the first conveying path, the driving source is switched to the first rotation direction again;
(7) The first and second conveying means are both driven downstream on the conveying path, to feed two sequences of the photosensitive material pieces as aligned at their tips.
Thus, only one driving source required makes it possible to provide a photosensitive-material conveying apparatus with a reduces cost and improved vibration, noise, and power dissipation.
Still another preferred embodiment of the present invention comprises: the above-mentioned first conveying means including a first conveyor belt and a first conveying roller around which the first conveyor belt is wound; the above-mentioned second conveying means including a second conveyor belt and a second conveying roller around which the second conveyor belt is wound; and a driving shaft for commonly supporting the above-mentioned first and second conveying rollers, in which the above-mentioned first conveying roller is supported so that it may be rotated along with the driving shaft, while the above-mentioned second conveying roller is supported via a third one-way clutch by the above-mentioned driving shaft.
This configuration can be simple because the driving shaft is adapted to support the first and second conveying rollers commonly. Also, since the first conveying roller is supported so as to be rotated along with the driving shaft and the second conveying roller is supported via the one-way clutch by the driving shaft, by rotating the driving shaft in such a direction as to lock the one-way clutch, both the firs tans second conveying rollers can be rotated. Also, by rotating only the second conveying roller, the above-mentioned one-way clutch can be slid to drive only the second conveyor belt.
Still another preferred embodiment of the present invention has such a configuration that comprises: a transfer shaft rotated by driving force of the above-mentioned driving source; a first transferring gear supported via a first one-way clutch to the above-mentioned transfer shaft; a second transferring gear supported to the above-mentioned transfer shaft via a second one-way clutch having actions in a direction opposite to that with the above-mentioned first one-way clutch; a third transferring gear which is adapted to rotate along with the above-mentioned second conveyor belt and mesh with the above-mentioned first transferring gear; a fourth transferring gear adapted to rotate along with the above-mentioned driving shaft; and an idling gear adapted to mesh with both the second and fourth transferring gears, in which driving force can be transferred through the above-mentioned transfer shaft, second transferring gear, idling gear, fourth transferring gear, and driving shaft in this order along the above-mentioned driving-force transferring path, to thus rotate the above-mentioned first and second conveying rollers and, along the second driving-force transferring path, driving force is transferred through the above-mentioned transfer shaft, first transferring gear, and third transferring gear in this order, to thus rotate only the above-mentioned second conveying roller.
With this configuration, when the driving source is driven in the first rotation direction, driving force can be transferred through the transfer shaft, second transferring gear, idling gear, fourth transferring gear, and driving shaft in this order, to drive both the first and second conveying rollers. Thus, both the first and second conveyor belts are driven. In this case, although the second one-way clutch remains locked, so that the transfer shaft and the second transferring gear rotate integrally, the first one-way clutch with actions in a direction opposite to that with the second one-way clutch is in a sliding state, so that the first transferring gear does not function in driving.
When the driving source is driven in the second rotation direction, on the other hand, driving force can be transferred through the transfer shaft, first transferring gear, and third transferring gear in this order, to thus drive only the second conveying roller (second conveyor belt). In this case, the first one-way clutch remains locked, so that the transfer shaft rotates along with the first transferring gear, while the second one-way clutch is in a sliding state, so that driving force is not transferred to the second transferring gear. Therefore, only the second conveying roller is driven. Note here that the third one-way clutch is also in a sliding state, so that the driving shaft is not driven even when the second conveying roller is rotated.
Thus, when only one driving source can be switched to certainly control the conveying of a photosensitive material.